This invention relates generally to antennas, and more particularly, to broadband antennas in wireless handheld electronic devices.
Handheld electronic devices are often provided with wireless capabilities. Handheld electronic devices with wireless capabilities use antennas to transmit and receive radio-frequency signals. For example, cellular telephones contain antennas that are used to handle radio-frequency communications with cellular base stations. Handheld computers often contain short-range antennas for handling wireless connections with wireless access points. Global positioning system (GPS) devices typically contain antennas that are designed to operate at GPS frequencies.
As technology advances, it is becoming possible to combine multiple functions into a single device and to expand the number of communications bands a single device can handle. For example, it is possible to incorporate a short-range wireless capability into a cellular telephone. It is also possible to design cellular telephones that cover multiple cellular telephone bands.
The desire to cover a wide range of radio frequencies presents challenges to antenna designers. It is typically difficult to design antennas that cover a wide range of communications bands while exhibiting superior radio-frequency performance. This is particularly true when designing antennas for handheld electronic devices where antenna size and shape can be particularly important.
As a result of these challenges, conventional handheld devices that need to cover a large number of communications bands tend to use multiple antennas, antennas that are undesirably large, antennas that have awkward shapes, or antennas that exhibit poor efficiency.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide an improved broadband antenna for a handheld electronic device.